News Comment/COMENTARI AL DIA

Duran’s Extinction by Vila d’Abadal/L’EXTINCIÓ DE DURAN PER VILA D’ABADAL

Duran’s Extinction by Vila d’Abadal

by Vicenç Pedret, Carles Puigdomenech and Joan Capdevila

Duran in battle fatigues: “Barcelona is great when there is money to be had, but with no money I prefer the Nazis (Spain).” Below: Vila’s view from Vic: the mayor for independence is a credible threat to Duran’s corruptocracy.

Vila d’Abadal obtained the signatures to contest the leadership of the Catalan Christian Democrats against Duran. The loyal opposition, which never challenged the expulsions, the generalised corruption and the latest pardons of Duran, has now broken with totalitarian discipline and positioned itself publicly in favor of the mayor of Vic and president of Municipalities for Independence (Search Vila d’Abadal Buries the Duran Sardine):

“When Duran began to preside the Catalan Christian Democrats, the country had just survived a coup d’Etat, Pujol had been president of Catalonia for just a few years and his bankruptcy of Banca Catalana still not investigated, Franco was a recent nightmare and there was no television in Catalan. No other leader from 1983 remains today. Pujol retired three elections ago, socialists changed their leader five times, Esquerra four and the PP six, while Duran has succeeded himself in perpetuity. To replace him in 2012 Vila d’Abadal has decided to be an alternative candidate. Some criticise his past as an enforcer when deputy general secretary, but no one will deny he has courage, tested in successive elections as mayor of Vic or defending his political positions (on immigration or independence). When he said he was running, our first reaction was to back the last of the Mohicans out of pure romanticism. A call to arms cannot be ignored by the defenders of our land, and we signed and collected signatures from the defeated remnants of our friends, acquaintances and greeted. True, there is a touch of epic in his willingness to fight against Duran’s thirty years. But beyond the epic (which is there), Vila d’Abadal actively talks about a future without Duran. More years of Duran, with his undisputed power and excessive personalisation are a mistake, and a clear dangerous threat of après moi, le déluge. The Catalan Christian Democrats may end up frozen and in risk of extinction. Duran is not where he is because of the support he has, but has the support he has because he is where he is. The absolute control of the party, with the threat of marginalization to any who dare challenge him, recalls Alfonso Guerra’s statement: “Whoever moves won’t come out in the picture.” Vila d’Abadal has no need to come out in the picture. So he moves freely. He is the essential stimulus that politics urgently needs in our country: an experienced leader, a Christian Democrat by conviction, at the top of political maturity, not afraid of the daily grind of local battles, who knows the party and leads cross-party movements like Municipalities for Independece. Vila d’Abadal is the future.”